Does Your Child Need Glasses? Look for These Signs

You’ve noticed your young child complains of headaches and rubs their eyes a lot. Does that mean it’s time to get glasses?

It could, says a Baylor College of Medicine expert, and noticing these signs early is critical for young children because their schoolwork could suffer or they could lose their vision completely.

“There is a period — approximately the first eight years of life — when the brain and the eye are learning to work together, and the visual system is still developing,” said Dr. Christina Weng, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Baylor. “During this time, parents should watch out for behavioral changes because they can be a sign of potential eye problems.”

“When children have trouble seeing, they often act out or exhibit other signs of stress, and it can be challenging to determine the cause of their behavior,” she explained. “It is very helpful for parents to pay attention to what situations trigger their behavior.”

For instance, does your child become upset when watching a movie far away from the screen? Or does he or she avoid reading or other forms of near-sight work or seem to ignore people or objects in the distance? Any of those scenarios could point to potential vision trouble, Weng said.

Additional symptoms associated with vision loss include:

Frequent headaches
Excessive eye rubbing
Holding a book, phone or tablet extremely close or far away
Closing one eye to read
Crossing, wandering or squinting of the eyes
Behavioral issues/inability to focus
Poor grades at school
Child complains that he/she has difficulty seeing the board at school

Although there may not always be a way to prevent vision loss, recognizing symptoms early can delay it or even avoid it altogether.

“Parents often ask me if sitting closer to the board, performing eye exercises or avoiding reading in the dark would help improve eye health. There really is no strong evidence to support this,” Weng said in a Baylor news release.

However, she said there are several things parents can do to prevent vision loss:

Address any vision problems immediately with your eye care provider
Visit your eye care provider regularly, since this may be the only way to detect some conditions
Always wear eye protection during activities where there is a risk of eye injury

Weng also recommends some other best practices to help prevent myopia, or near-sightedness, which she said is a global epidemic among younger populations.

“Myopia is associated with a higher risk of vision-threatening issues such as retinal detachment, and research is being done actively to find effective ways of prevention,” Weng said. “There is evidence that reducing and taking frequent breaks from near-work [e.g., reading on a phone or tablet] and spending time outdoors may be helpful in curbing development of myopia in children and adolescents.”

If a child shows any signs of vision loss, Weng suggests taking them to see an ophthalmologist for a complete eye examination. The sooner any eye issues are detected, the better the chance of salvaging or preserving good vision.

“It is critical that children receive eye screenings throughout childhood because different problems can arise at different ages,” Weng said.

“While the exact frequency of exams varies depending on an individual’s risk factors, the first screening should take place when the baby is a newborn,” she noted. “Subsequent exams are generally recommended at six to 12 months, three years of age, and then periodically throughout school age years.”

More information

The American Academy of Ophthalmology has more on myopia.

SOURCE: Baylor College of Medicine, news release, Aug. 15, 2024